Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A little cottontail rabbit popped out of a bush as we took a walk the other day. It stood perfectly still, frozen in place even as my daughter inched closer to it. Then it zipped off, perhaps to a safe hidey-hole somewhere nearby. We didn't try to follow it because we've read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and know full well the dangers of following a rabbit into a hole. :)

However, it is jolly fun PRETENDING to jump into a book. My daughter and one of her friends experienced their own Alice in Wonderland storybook adventure a while back with a little help from Storybook Tea Kit Company.

Alice's Pawfect Tea-Party kit comes with all the ingredients to host your own imaginative Alice in Wonderland inspired tea party. (Sadly no rabbit, but there is a pocket watch and more!) The classic story comes to life for kids as they read a section of the book and enter Lewis Carroll's dreamy Wonderland world, experiencing it one treat at a time.

(Just a note, the kit does not come with a ceramic tea set. You must use your own. It also does not include the an entire copy of the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, only a booklet covering chapter seven, a portion of the book.)

The girls lost no time opening the box and pouring over all the treasures. In fact, they could hardly contain their excitement. I managed to help them open all the treats and I boiled some hot water so we could steep the tea bag. Then we grabbed our own personal copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (a must in every home) and read a few fun parts, including the "Eat Me" and "Drink Me" sections. The girls pretended to shrink and grow like Alice as they ate the little cake and drank from the bottle (the bottle comes empty so we added a little Apple Juice to make it seem more realistic). The shrinking and growing was their favorite part of the afternoon!

Afterwards we moved on to the tea party. Luckily earlier this summer I found a small ceramic tea set at Goodwill and the girls used it for their tea party. They invited a few stuffed animals to attend and their little brothers also "crashed" the party. We divided the chocolate pocket watch and the cookies and distributed them to all attendees, including the little brothers. (No use in being rude like the Hatter.) The kids obviously aren't used to actual tea and didn't really care for the Apple Cinnamon tea flavor, but they ate every last crumb of the rest of the consumables. During the tea party we listened to the kit's CD.

Later on we played with Photoshop and truly sent the girls swirling down the rabbit hole using the twirl effect! If you have your own Alice in Wonderland tea party, I'd recommend taking pictures from different perspectives while the kids enjoy the "Eat Me" and "Drink Me" treats. The girls thought it was hilariously funny that camera tricks could make them look really small and really, really big.

The creators of the kit have seen to every last detail. The tiny "Eat Me" cake comes in a plastic container that looks like a "glass box" as specified in the original story. I was able to grab a few bites of the treats and they are scrumptious! I do wish there were more yummy treats in the single kit, but if you have a really large party planned you can buy a multi setting kit for extra goodies or purchase refills. I really, really adore the storybook keepsake container. It looks like an old fashioned leather book with fancy gold letters and it works wonderfully as a hidden compartment, hollow book perfect for hiding all your treasures once you've consumed the contents of the kit. The company takes great care in shipping the product, using plenty of cushioning wrap and it arrived quickly with the perishable contents fully intact. The kit provides creative kids with wonderful tools to explore a beloved classic and conduct their own tea party all in the course of one afternoon.

The Tea Party Kit normally retails for $40, but during the month of September it is going on sale for $24.99 + tax/shipping! (Another reason to buy -- According to the website, storybookteakit.com donates $1.00 on every purchase of Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party Kit to the National Bullying Prevention Center™)

Storybook Tea Kit Company has kindly offered to giveaway an Alice's Pawfect Tea-Party kit to a Brimful Curiosities reader.

To enter the contest, answer the following question: What book, classic or not, would you like to explore as a tea party kit? (Storybook Tea Kit Company has plans to release more kits including The Princess Collection of Fairy Tales, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beauty and the Beast and Peter Pan.)

• For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.
• Contest is open to US/Canada (No PO boxes)
• Contest ends on Monday, September 26th, 2011 at 11:59 PM CST.
• Winner will be chosen at random and sent an email notification.

Three ways to gain extra entries (Maximum total entries is 4; please leave a separate comment for each entry):
1st extra entry: Blog about this contest then post your link in the comment section.
2nd extra entry: Follow me on twitter (iambrimful) and tweet about the contest.
3rd extra entry: Follow Me! or subscribe by email or RSS reader

I am not sure how this book could be turned in to a tea party but my fav. children's book is ``Love you Forever``3 children later, 2 of them grown men, I still can not get through it without crying...jglaframboise at eastlink dot ca

About Me

Brimful Curiosities is a mom blog/book blog featuring reviews and posts on children's books, music, educational products, toys and more. It's home to the weekly "Full to the Brim" Kid's Book Giveaway List. Occasionally it includes non-children related product and book reviews and personal postings.